Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss this very important Bill which Fianna Fáil is happy to support, as I indicated to my counterpart across the floor. It is a step forward and, as we know, will enable small and medium enterprises which employ approximately 800,000 people throughout the country to avail of knowledge development box taxation schemes for profits from research and development activities. A reduced corporation tax rate of 6.25%, half of the existing rate, is welcome, if used in the right spirit. I do, however, have a couple of queries.

The main tranche of the knowledge development box was announced in October 2014. It has taken a while to get this far, perhaps because the Bill is quite heavy legislation. I am sure there are many loopholes and bits and pieces that will have to be tidied up, including the certification process. Fianna Fáil believes the Bill is aimed mainly at multinationals operating in Ireland. As I said, we have discussed multinationals and their tax arrangements have been well aired throughout the country and globally. There is a strict certification process. Is the Minister happy that there are enough safeguards to cover projects in which they are engaged or cases where they piggyback on an existing scheme that has been modified slightly in order to avail of the lower tax rate? I would like to know what protocols are in place to tackle such issues, if the Minister considers that there is a problem in that regard.

Some Irish enterprises have had brilliant ideas in recent times. Business owners may have ideas on which they are working and which may be blockbusters in terms of intellectual property or new developments that could lead to great things. Is there a retrospective qualifying date included in the Bill? Do people have to have some of the work on a project done already? Is there a specific process in order to qualify? If not, I am fearful that somebody who is ready for the off, with a blockbuster-type company in the offing, is holding back in order to reduce his or her tax rate by half.

In principle, a lot of work has been done on the Bill which we are happy, but, as I said, we have some queries.